Robert Harper Atkinson

1943 - 2025

Boise - Robert Harper Atkinson (a.k.a. Andrew Harper), the founder and visionary force behind the pioneer Hideaway Report travel newsletter, which he wrote under the pen name of Andrew Harper, died peacefully on July 13th at age 82. He was a resident of Boise and Sun Valley, Idaho, since 1987 and served as Editor-in-Chief of the publication from 1979-2007.

Hailed by USA Today as "upscale travel's international man of mystery," Atkinson and his surviving wife, Brenda, wandered anonymously around the globe for more than 25 years seeking out enchanting, unspoiled destinations for the newsletter's loyal readers. To maintain the newsletter's exclusivity, subscriptions were limited to 25,000, mostly celebrities, CEOs and presidents of companies who desired frank reviews of secluded getaways far from the madding crowd.

"Anonymity breeds objectivity," Atkinson often said, his newsletter being the very first travel publication to wholly adopt the policy of traveling incognito paying the same rate as any typical guest when staying at hotels he reviewed. He also filled the pre-Internet void of providing information on worldwide hideaways that few people ever knew existed. "I'm just a romantic nomad in search of Shangri-la," he once told a Forbes reporter, "and I was fortunate to turn my lifelong quest into a successful enterprise."

Summing up his love for exotic places in a Wall Street Journal interview, Atkinson said: "Seclusion rates big in my book. Charm not chicness. But most of all, I am invigorated by sublime and scenic settings, which convey a profound sense of permanence and purity that inevitably elevates the human spirit. Places where civility and contentment still prevail, where no one seems in any great hurry and the everyday richness of life is savored to its fullest."

Robert Harper Atkinson was born January 13, 1943, in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Keith and Catherine Atkinson. He is survived by his high school sweetheart, Brenda Atkinson, to whom he was married for 59 years. (He was preceded in death by his sisters Mary Atkinson and Jean Driggers and is survived by his brother Richard Atkinson). Prior to his founding of Hideaway Report in 1979, he was as a copywriter and account executive for J. Walter Thompson and several other advertising agencies. He also served on Capitol Hill in the 1970s as the Press Secretary and Chief of Staff to Rep. Beverly Byron and Rep. Goodloe Byron. More recently, he served on the Honors College Advisory Board at Boise State University. He was also the editor of The Confessions of Congressman X, a shockingly frank tell-all that was a #1 Amazon bestseller in May 2016.

Based on his wishes, he was buried without ceremony at Dellwood Cemetery in Manchester Village, Vermont. According to his wife, his pre-planned epitaph reads: "Robert Harper Atkinson (a.k.a. Andrew Harper) On his way to the ultimate hideaway; no report expected."